The invention relates to telephones and more particularly to mobile cellular telephones for motor vehicular use.
Current mobile telephones are patterned after home and office equipment and are difficult to locate in motor vehicles. The crowded condition, which exists in vehicle interiors, results in a need for concepts in mobile telephones which can save space in the vehicle interiors. Moreover, the current telephone locations cause safety concerns. For example, the current locations on instrument panels and consoles require the driver to divert his attention from the road when utilizing the telephone and the telephones may impact, or be impacted by, the driver or passenger in a collision situation. The current locations are further deficient in that they fail to accommodate a wide range of vehicle designs and sizes. In some cases, the equipment designs have required substantial vehicle modifications to accommodate the equipment within the vehicle and these modifications have increased new model investment costs as well as manufacturing costs.
One improved method of locating a mobile telephone in a motor vehicle is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,273 wherein the telephone is mounted in the sunvisor of the vehicle. This location is an improvement over the instrument panel and console locations in the sense that the driver need not substantially divert his/her eyes from the road. However, the extremely close proximity of the telephone controls to the eyes of the driver can create focusing problems, especially when the driver is using vision correction devices such as eyeglasses or contact lenses.